Themes in A Midsummer's Nightdream

In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, the theme of love is developed through out the play’s characters falling in love and setting. The play takes place in the Green World, it’s a chaotic environment, and the characters in the play happen to be there. Shakespeare develops the theme of love in his play in order to reveal deeper meaning about real life, that one has no control over who they fall in love with. In the play the characters Demetrius, Lysander, and Queen Titania are put under a love potion and don’t have control over who they fall in love with. One can argue that one does have control who they love because they are not under a love potion, however the characters are in the Green World and have no control over the chaotic magic that occurs there. Love, not having control over who you fall in love with, that theme is evolved through out the play. In the beginning of the play Lysander is in love with Hermia, and they can’t get married in the city of Athens so they run away to the woods, also know as the Green World. The setting through out the whole play takes place in the chaotic forest, where the unexpected happens. Lysander is put under a love potion, that he didn’t even know. He ends up falling in love with Hermia’s bestfriend Helena. Lysander has no control over that, and it’s an unexpected change for him as well as Hermia. Hermia says: “O me, what news, my love! Am I not Hermia? Are you not Lysander? I am as fair now as I was erewhile. Since night you loved me; yet since night you left me.” (III.ii.277-880) In this quote we see that the change is unexpected, and Hermia has no idea what happen. This shows that a greater force controls who we fall in love with, we don’t have control over that magic. We can’t change what’s already happen, Lysander is in love with Helena, and there’s nothing he can do about it. Some say that they have control over who they fall in love with because magic is not real, but then again an unexpected